— Advertisement —

Bike News Roundup: Biking the distance between planets

It’s time for the Bike News Roundup! Here’s a spattering of transportation news from around the region and the globe. As always, this is an open thread.

First up, classic Bill Nye demonstrating the distance between planets by riding his bike (Spoiler: They are really far apart):


— Advertisement —

Pacific Northwest News

Halftime show! This one flashy bike tourism ad:

National & Global News

This is an open thread.


About the author:


Related posts:

Comments

12 responses to “Bike News Roundup: Biking the distance between planets”

  1. Gary

    The real question with the traffic decline on the Viaduct is now that 48K trips are gone, will tolls in the tunnel even come close to paying off the tunnel??

    Also the article didn’t mention the increase in bicycle traffic, not huge, but it’s also likely folks are riding vs sitting in traffic. Of course a really safe route would increase that option for far less money than the rest of this boondogle.

  2. Ben Morris

    What kind of bike was The Science Guy riding? Looks like it has a ‘vertically split’ top tube…
    Oregon biking vid: I thought the line (at 40 seconds in) was an elevation-profile, until the line went vertical…. Damn, that’s steep! LOL!

    1. It wouldn’t surprise me if the “second” downtube is a spring-loaded pump. Road/touring bikes of that vintage sometimes had ones matching the frame.

      Some taller bikes with big gaps between the down tube and top tube use a second top tube to restore the front triangle. Some smaller work bikes do the same. I don’t think Nye’s bike looks much like either of those. I don’t really know, though.

      1. JAT

        It’s a standard Bianchi with a frame-fit pump (probably a Silca Impero and probably with the Campagnolo solid brass presta head) in Celeste.

        Bianchi owners of a certain vintage could be a little obsessive about matching Celeste components and accessories to their Celeste frame. I’m almost surprised to see the black saddle and bar tape.

        Don’t they teach you kids anything in school these days?

      2. I’m not sure what they taught us in school, man, I was playing games on my graphing calculator the whole time.

  3. Matthew Snyder

    Two comments, taking advantage of the open thread:

    1) Thanks to the UW grounds crew for heavily trimming the vegetation just north of intersection of University Way and the Burke-Gilman trail! I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve nearly been crushed by cars making right-on-red from University onto Pacific and pulling into the crosswalk illegally, at high speed. After a year of complaints to SDOT and the UW about this intersection, they finally trimmed back the shrubbery so that at least now I can see the cars coming before they plow into me. I still think a “no turn on red” sign would be appropriate here, because to do so requires crossing and stopping in a bike highway, but SDOT has thus far not responded to repeated requests.

    2) What the heck is taking so long with the SDOT bike safety project in Ballard along NW 45th? It seems like a relatively straightforward project — some paint, a couple of new signs, no new lights or major infrastructure. And yet it’s still stuck in this kind of half-completed state after several months. Did anyone get a definitive answer about whether there will be a new 3-way stop sign at the intersection of 45th/Shilshole?

    1. Tom Fucoloro

      1) Agree about the no turn on red there. 2) I’ll follow up.

  4. QACyclist

    “New $30M transit garage in SeaTac will have more than 1,000 parking stalls – Puget Sound Business Journal – Because clearly we have so much transit money that we need to start spending our surplus on car storage”

    That’s a little unfair, as people won’t be riding transit if they can’t park at a station. Not everyone has feeder buses to park and rides. Also, said park and rides tend to fill up incredibly early in the morning—such as Lynnwood where you can try to find parking at several P&Rs at 9:00 am and find nothing, resulting in having to drive in. My only problem with the transit garage is that it should have more parking to increase ridership on the train.

    1. In terms of cost, space near the station, and use of public street right-of-way near the station, a parking space is a pretty expensive way to buy two train rides per workday. Big garages and the road capacity needed to serve them tie these areas into eternal car-dependence.

      Eternal car-dependence is a luxury we can’t afford, and car-oriented suburbs aren’t an exception to be accommodated, they’re a majority of our region. Re-orienting them around more sustainable modes of transportation is one of the most important projects of every generation alive today.

      1. QA Cyclist

        Sure, that’s the long term. Should we not enable people to ride transit right now?

      2. Not if we build infrastructure that gets in the way of what we’ll need in the future.

    2. mike archambault

      It’s all a trade off. Providing parking will definitely attract riders, but at $30million, that’s about $30,000 per parking spot, which is a pretty expensive way to get a rider for the day, not to mention any rush hour congestion the garage will cause. Imagine if we built an apartment building there instead, maybe we could still get those extra 1000 riders, but you’d also be getting new residents that frequent local stores and pay property tax, don’t add as much to the traffic jams by the station, make the block more attractive, etc.

— Advertisement —

Join the Seattle Bike Blog Supporters

As a supporter, you help power independent bike news in the Seattle area. Please consider supporting the site financially starting at $5 per month:


Latest stories

Bike Events Calendar

Mar
19
Tue
6:00 pm South Seattle Safe Streets Coali… @ Virtual via Zoom
South Seattle Safe Streets Coali… @ Virtual via Zoom
Mar 19 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Joint meeting between Rainier Valley Greenways & Beacon Hill Safe Streets.ShareMastodonTwitterFacebookRedditEmail
Mar
21
Thu
7:15 pm Point83 @ Westlake Park
Point83 @ Westlake Park
Mar 21 @ 7:15 pm
Point83 @ Westlake Park
Meet up in the center of the park at 7ish. Leave at 730. Every Thursday from now until forever rain or shine. Bikes, beers, illegal firepits, nachos, bottlerockets, timetraveling, lollygagging, mechanicals, good times.ShareMastodonTwitterFacebookRedditEmail
Mar
23
Sat
11:00 am Sharing Wheels Bike Parking Lot … @ Sharing Wheels Community Bike Shop
Sharing Wheels Bike Parking Lot … @ Sharing Wheels Community Bike Shop
Mar 23 @ 11:00 am – 3:00 pm
Sharing Wheels Bike Parking Lot Sale @ Sharing Wheels Community Bike Shop | Everett | Washington | United States
Sharing Wheels will have completely cleaned and refurbished bikes, As-Is bikes, parts and accessories at our spring Parking Lot Sale! All road bikes will be 50%. All other bikes are 20% off. We have mountain,[…]
Mar
25
Mon
5:30 pm Downtown Greenways monthly meeting
Downtown Greenways monthly meeting
Mar 25 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Last Monday of the month.  Join us! https://seattlegreenways.org/downtowngreenwaysShareMastodonTwitterFacebookRedditEmail
Mar
27
Wed
6:00 pm Ballard-Fremont Greenways Meeting
Ballard-Fremont Greenways Meeting
Mar 27 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Ballard-Fremont Greenways meets monthly on the 4th Wednesday of the month. Join the google group for monthly meeting information: https://groups.google.com/g/ballard-greenwaysBring your enthusiasm and ideas to share with the group or just stop in to say hello[…]
— Advertisements —

Latest on Mastodon

Loading Mastodon feed…